


In Which the Past Comes Back to Haunt Hecate

by twtd



Series: The Witches' Market [2]
Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017), The Worst Witch - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-10-09 14:36:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17408744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twtd/pseuds/twtd
Summary: Hecate and Pippa spend a night with one of Hecate's old friends.A continuation of The Witches' Market."Thank you, milady." Ambrose opened the door wider and fanned out his arm to invite Hecate in. "And why wouldn't I want to spend a night with one of my favorite people and her delightful girlfriend?" He offered his hand to Pippa as she stepped through the door and bowed over it to kiss the back. Pippa, who appeared to be delighted, laughed."I knew I liked you." Pippa stepped into Ambrose's flat with smiling eyes before she turned to Hecate. "I knew I liked him."





	In Which the Past Comes Back to Haunt Hecate

**Author's Note:**

> This is 100% self-indulgent fluff. I loved the way Hecate and Ambrose interacted when I wrote The Witches' Market and I decided I needed to see more of it. Absolutely nothing happens in this fic. Ambrose, Hecate, and Pippa get drunk together. That's it. 
> 
> Ambrose is kinda stolen from The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, though in my head he isn't exactly the same character, just really, really close. An AU Ambrose, I guess. This isn't actually a crossover. You don't need to know anything about CAOS to enjoy it.

"I can't believe this is what you want," Hecate said as she stepped into Ambrose's flat. "As requested." She presented a bottle of schnapps. He took it with a flourish. 

"Thank you, milady." Ambrose opened the door wider and fanned out his arm to invite Hecate in. "And why wouldn't I want to spend a night with one of my favorite people and her delightful girlfriend?" He offered his hand to Pippa as she stepped through the door and bowed over it to kiss the back. Pippa, who appeared to be delighted, laughed. 

"I knew I liked you." Pippa stepped into Ambrose's flat with smiling eyes before she turned to Hecate. "I knew I liked him." 

"Indeed," Hecate said dryly. She followed Pippa further inside. The flat wasn't large, just one room really, with a shoji screen blocking off the view to a pristinely made bed that was little more than a mattress on the floor. It was the only thing in the apartment that was pristine. Every available space along the walls held bookshelves full of tomes of various ages. Some looked ancient while others were so new their spines hadn't been cracked yet. They spilled off of the shelves and onto every flat surface. The floor held a mishmash of various, multi-colored rugs. They grew more plush by the fireplace, setting off an unmatched collection of chairs and poufs and pillows. The smell of incense filled the room and scarves covered the lights. Hecate was positive it had been an opium den in another life. 

"Have a seat." Ambrose gestured toward the fireplace, and with a snap, the fire roared to life. Hecate sniffed at the theatrics and even Pippa rolled her eyes a bit as she took Hecate's hand and tugged her over to the lounge chairs. "Just give me a minute while I get glasses for the tipple. I've a feeling the imperious Hecate Hardbroom wouldn't be down with drinking straight from the bottle." He started to rummage around in his kitchen cabinets, almost as if three glasses might be located in three completely separate places. For all Hecate knew, they very well might be. 

"You would be correct in that assumption." Hecate pursed her lips as she sat on the edge of one of the chairs. It was clearly well used but it was hardly the state of the chairs that concerned Hecate about the night. Ambrose knew a very different side of her than Pippa did and she wasn't sure how she felt about the sudden intermingling. 

Pippa lightly slapped the back of Hecate's arm with her fingers. "You were happy enough to drink out of the bottle when we snuck onto the roof with that witches' brew at the end of our last year in school." She sat in the chair closest to Hecate and pulled her feet up under herself, clearly already at ease in her surroundings. 

"Considering I was seventeen at the time, I think I can be forgiven for that unfortunate lapse."

"That's not what you were saying at the time." Pippa's teasing was too good-natured for Hecate to really take offense. Pippa smiled up at Ambrose as he passed her a small glass full of Hecate's schnapps. He handed another glass to Hecate and put the bottle down on top of a book sitting on a side table before falling back into his own chair. 

"I suppose drinking games are out? No truth or dare?" The mirth on Ambrose's lips said he knew what Hecate's response would be before she said it. She simply raised an eyebrow but it was more than enough to convey her meaning. "Righty-ho," Ambrose responded. "Oh, my aunties send their best."

"Pass on my regards." Hecate nodded. Pippa dropped her arm in Hecate's general direction and Hecate reflexively took her hand, twining their fingers together. 

"What shall we toast to?" Pippa asked as she looked between Ambrose and Hecate. 

They sat in silence for a moment before Ambrose sat up straight. "Oh, I know."

Hecate raised an eyebrow. Whatever Ambrose was thinking, it was going to be ridiculous. She didn't know if Ambrose could even manage serious. 

"Well, go on then," Pippa said as she raised her glass. Couldn't she see that Ambrose needed no encouragement? 

"God save the Queen!" He looked directly at Hecate, clearly addressing her and not the actual monarch. 

Hecate rolled her eyes. "There's no need to be so melodramatic." 

Pippa squeezed Hecate's fingers. "Well, I, for one, think it's a lovely sentiment. To the queen." She tapped her glass against Ambrose's. 

"Fine," Hecate said with a huff as she leaned in to do the same. As soon as they were finished tapping glasses, Ambrose tossed back the contents of his glass. Pippa watched him, and with a shrug of her shoulder and a glance at Hecate, followed his example. Hecate watched them both aghast. 

Pippa laughed and squeezed Hecate's fingers again. "Don't be a spoilsport. C'mon Hiccup." 

With a long-suffering sigh, Hecate drank the schnapps in one long sip. Lemon, with a hint of elderflower and other herbs, coated the inside of her mouth then burned pleasantly down the back of her throat.

"Hiccup? You've got to tell me where that came from." Ambrose refilled all of their glasses but took a much more demure sip this time. "I thought I was the only person who could get away with calling Hex anything other than 'Miss Hardbroom.' Though I guess you've got an advantage over most when it comes to keeping the old bat, no offense," Ambrose said as an aside to Hecate, "happy." 

Pippa laughed as Hecate turned red. She did not appreciate the allusion to her sex life, though she supposed she should have expected as much. 

"I should certainly hope I have an advantage." Pippa looked over to Hecate and the brief flash of pure lust in her eyes only served to make Hecate more red. And Pippa had only had one drink. Hecate dispaired at how the night was going to turn out. "Now," Pippa turned back to Ambrose, "tell me how on Earth you came up with the name 'Hex,' which is really much too clever, and I'll tell you where Hiccup came from."

"As much as I'd like to take credit for the wordplay, I can't." Ambrose shrugged. "I was just a toddler who couldn't pronounce 'Hecate.' So I called her 'Hecs' instead. It stuck and sort of morphed as I got older." 

"Oh, that's delightful." If it weren't for their still joined fingers, Hecate would have thought that Pippa had completely forgotten her presence in the room. And maybe that was for the best. It was far harder for them to embarrass her if they didn't think she was there. "So you've known Hecate since you were a toddler?"

"Mmm, since I was an infant. She's friends with my aunties. They have a booth at the market, selling books, which I'm sure isn't hard to believe." Ambrose looked around at all of the books in the flat. "They looked after me a lot when I was young. My parents traveled, sourcing rare specimens normally found in particularly dangerous locations, so they'd leave me with my aunties. I'd sit in Hex's lap whenever she came for tea, which was much more often in those days." 

Hecate rolled her eyes. It was no secret that she found Ambrose's parents' choices irresponsible. That they still cavorted off to Goddess knows where on a regular basis didn't help matters. 

"Pippa isn't interested in your propensity for using me as a jungle gym." Hecate felt the conversation spin more and more out of her control. She took a larger than advisable sip of her schnapps and simply held her glass out when Ambrose moved to refill it. 

"Oh, no, I think I want to know exactly what Hecate's was like when you were climbing all over her." Pippa didn't take her eyes from Ambrose, looking at him with undisguised curiosity. 

"Well…" 

Hecate sighed again. They were off and there was no use trying to stop them. She should have known she would be the topic of conversation for the night. What else did Pippa and Ambrose have in common? Maybe she should have agreed to the drinking game.

* * *

"And Hecate's hair was bright pink for a week." Pippa couldn't control her laughter. "We both ended up in detention for that one. Looking back, even I would probably give myself detention for that one. What do you say, Hecate, would that stunt be enough to get you to lock us up in a small, dark, lonely classroom together?" Pippa batted her eyes up at Hecate. At some point, she had moved to the floor by Hecate's feet, leaning back against her legs.

"I haven't any idea what you might be implying. Certainly I would give us both detention." She and Pippa had used an unauthorized potion with unknown side effects out of pure curiosity. That Hecate's hair had turned pink was the least of the trouble they could have gotten into. If it were up to her now, she would have given them far more than one detention. That wasn't what Pippa was really talking about though. 

"I'm not implying anything. Whatever you're inferring is entirely a product of your own dirty imagination." If anything, it was Pippa's smirk that was dirty. "Really, an educator such as yourself thinking of doing who knows what in an empty classroom." 

Too flushed from the copious amounts of alcohol they had already consumed, Hecate couldn't have blushed if she had wanted to. She had walked into that one. Her fingers found the top of Pippa's head and she started to run through her hair. Pippa smiled a pleased smile and leaned into the touch. The room descended into a comfortable silence for a moment undoubtedly aided by the empty bottle of schnapps and the nearly empty bottle of wine they were currently enjoying. 

"On that note, I think it's best if I get both of us back to Cackle's." Hecate nudged Pippa with her foot. 

"Boo," Ambrose called out from where he was lounging in his chair, legs thrown over one of the arms. 

"Oh, if you insist." Pippa pouted but unsteadily got to her feet. Before she could topple over, Hecate was there to support her. 

Ambrose huffed and stood up as well. He swayed back and forth and didn't have the advantage of Hecate there to keep him upright. Still, he managed it on his own. Somehow, though she had drunk just as much as the other two, Hecate was the only one who didn't look as though she was about to fall over. She blinked to try to clear her eyes and make the room stop spinning. It only marginally worked. They would have to get a cab to take them back to Cackle's. They were in no state to either fly or transfer. Luckily, it was much easier to hail a cab with magic than the normal way. They headed toward the door. 

"Thank you both for coming." Ambrose clapped his hands together. Even drunk, he remembered his manners. "We'll definitely have to do it again."

"Absolutely." Pippa leaned in and kissed Ambrose's cheek like they were old friends. "You'll have to come out to Pentangle's next time." 

Hecate rolled her eyes. She knew introducing Pippa and Ambrose was a bad idea. She could only imagine what they might get up to at Pentangle's with an entire school to cavort in. 

Ambrose turned toward Hecate. "C'me here, Hex, and let me give you a hug." He pulled her into his arms. Hecate blamed the drink for the hug she gave him in return. 

"Make sure you drink some water." She would send him some anti-hangover potion in the morning just in case he didn't have any. 

"Aye, aye, Captain." He threw off a lazy salute before opening the door. Hecate and Pippa stepped through it and seconds later they were exiting the building and entering the back of a cab.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are the best and I'm on tumblr @twtd11


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